Basis, description, and objectives of the IGNITEX experiment

The Fusion Ignition Experiment (IGNITEX) has been recently proposed by M.N. Rosenbluth, W.F. Weldon, and H.H. Woodson (1987) as a means to produce low-cost ignition soon. The basic idea is to utilize a single-turn-coil tokamak in its ohmic regime of operation to heat a mixture of deuterium-tritium to thermonuclear conditions. The experiment has an ample ignition margin. It has the capability of producing thermally stable plasmas. Unconventional magnet and power-supply technologies are used to allow a simple and compact thermonuclear machine. The overall design simplicity of the IGNITEX experiment significantly reduces the cost of construction compared to the cost of more conventional approaches. The proposed IGNITEX experiment, which should produce and control ignited plasmas for scientific study in a simple and relatively inexpensive way, is described